Posts Tagged: traffic analysis

DataFromSky in cooperation with Trafficlab, conducted an important and complex traffic analysis in Italy, over the motorway junction of Dalmine (Bergamo), near the A4 motorway (Torino – Trieste), and the highway SS470. With the aid of a special balloon (Immagini al Volo) and DataFromSky, it was possible to obtain a complete picture of the performance of the vehicles during the morning peak hours (7.00 – 9.00).

In particular, the studied elements are 4 junctions: 3 roundabout and 1 multi-level junction, directly connected to the motorway.

Through the traffic flows obtained, it was possible to create an OD-matrix for every junction and for every type of vehicle (bicycles, motorcycles, cars, medium vehicles, high vehicles, buses), to extrapolate information about the behaviour of every vehicle, such as acceleration, speed, time gap, time to follow; all these data are available for every route and every type of vehicle. The acceleration and the maximum and minimum speed values represent a valid help for the creation of a traffic simulation on the junction that were considered. The results are great with a minimum difference between the number of entering vehicles and the number of exiting vehicles (it has to be considered that the surveys were conducted in different times and days).

Another peculiarity of this tool is to give the possibility to elaborate vehicle’s trajectories with a GIS software. The trajectories are connected to a geo-database that contains all the information about the vehicle and its behaviour (shape files).

It is interesting to focus on the incorrect behaviour of road users with the help of the object presence alert, the new special feature of DataFromSky Viewer. For example, it was possible to see that a vehicle crossed the roundabout in the opposite direction!

Finally, thanks to an in-depth analysis of the Copert model about pollutant emissions, it was possible to define the quantities of pollutants released into the atmosphere by the traffic flow of the considered area: CO [kg], Non methane VOC – HC [kg], PM [kg], NOx [kg], CO2[kg] e Fuel Consumption [kg].

Flow analysis, speed and critical points in the city of Alba
“DataFromSky”, in other words, data that arrives from the sky through the shootings of a camera placed on a balloon. It was not so difficult to see one of these during these days in the industrial area located in Corso Asti, where the local study “TrafficLab” is going to analyze the traffic from the sky. “This is an analysis that we need for planning the new commerce building placed in this area” says the municipal officer. The results are still processing. Andrea Marella, engineer at TrafficLab, says: “We realized some aerial video at a height about 50/60 meters. The results are really interesting, because it is possible to see the traffic from a different perspective.” And explains: “This is a new methodology developed about three years ago that allows to analyze the vehicle movements from the sky. This service doesn’t interference with the sensitive data, and helps to get information automatically with our software. This can give us the number of the vehicles on the road, the traffic flow, the directions, the speeds and the conflict points.”

Looking for solutions
The camera is attached to a balloon inflated with helium. Marella adds: “We cannot use drones, because it is too difficult to have authorizations. We work in this way from a long time, with motorway companies, shopping centers and traffic local authorities and the results are very satisfactory. In this way we can have a wider vision that allows to report potentially critical situations and to find out how to solve them.”

DataFromSky in cooperation with COWI is coming with a new traffic analysis from Denmark! As in all other major cities, massive amounts of traffic goes in and out of Copenhagen every day. This leads to congestion and the everlasting discussion on how to effectively move as many people as possible. In Copenhagen, almost 50 percent of all commuting trips are made using bicycles. This results in numerous potential conflicts between bicycles and cars, and the battle for allocating and distributing sheer road surface space between the transport modes is continually on – especially at certain locations, where available space is scarce. One such place is “Christmas Moellers Plads”, an intersection complex connecting inner Copenhagen to the island Amager. Through the use of a specialized UAV and Data From Sky, COWI has obtained a complete 4-hour overview of traffic passing through this complex for both cyclists and motorists – and the interaction between the two. The data extracted now forms the basis for looking into new and better solutions that will keep this people mover perform at its best.

As Denmark has become first country in the world using real-time traffic data all around the country we got the opportunity to analyse one of many busy crossroads in there. For us it is the second time monitoring traffic in Denmark, this time in Rismarksvej. The intersection is four-way and bicycles friendly and controlled by traffic lights.

Last Tuesday, 3rd of November, a ceremonial announcement of final results of Nastartujte se competition took place in Hotel Ambassador – Wenceslas Square, Prague.

From more than 50 registered projects DataFromSky got a title of the second best start-up project in Czech Republic. Being a part of Nastartujte se competition was a great opportunity for us and we would like to thank to organizers and all people connected.

We are very proud of our team and we appreciate the award very much. It reminds us that everything we have been working on day by day does make sense and is moving forward.

The famous Italian exhibition Smart Mobility World also this year allowed to exhibit some of the best innovations within the traffic and mobility field. Every year more and more smart and technological, and we were there!

Therefore we would like to thank to all our visitors for their interest in the exposition and our video analysis service which helped them to get a deeper understanding, for visiting our conferences (Smart Mobility World 2015 presentation), bilateral meeting, or simply for standing by and giving us some kind words.

Thanks to Smart Mobility 2015 we had the opportunity to hear people’s opinions and see their interest in a project we’ve been developing for two years, with commitment and dedication, in order to provide a service that is currently one of a kind. The important results we’re getting, that can be seen on our videos and confirmed by our partners, are something we’re very proud of.

What can we get from 4K resolution in the field of traffic monitoring? We tried it for the first time and the answer is – coverage of huge intersections with great accuracy in the vehicle localization! DataFromSky is prepared to bring you high quality aerial video data.

Sam Ziusudras, from Curtin University’sCivil Engineering department is evaluating the reliability of the traffic data obtained from small Unmanned Airborne Vehicles in generating Origin-Destination matrices for intersections. As a part of this study, Sam and the research team will be flying a drone to capture video from the flow of the traffic through an intersection in Western Australia. The trajectories would then be extracted using DataFromSky Services, and finally compared to the ‘manual count’ of volume studies for any discrepancies.

A Workshop titled Modern methods of image recognition and processing methods was organized recently by Technical University in Liberec*. The aim of the workshop was to offer insight into image processing applications from the industry, as opposed to research setting.

David Herman and Adam Babinec went to present DataFromSky, with a presentation as well as a stand, and talked about the applications and methods behind DataFromSky.

If you are technically minded, you can download the presentation (PDF, 2 MB) and learn more about guts of DFS and the methods used. This presentation went into significantly more detail than anything we have shared here so far – it’s a shame we did not manage to record a video. Still, our technology is innovative enough to be published in academic journals and at conferences, so hopefully we will have some papers to share later. There are still lots of ideas to try out…